With barely nine days to its governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have opened its doors for further crisis in Ondo state as seven aspirants have rejected what they described as doctored delegates list for the election.
The aspirants, Bode Ayorinde , Ebiseni Sola, Eyitayo Jegede, Kunlere Boluwaji, Okunomo Banji, Olafeso Eddy, and Gooday Erewa, who accused the party’s leadership of doctoring the list to favour the incumbent deputy governor Agboola Ajayi, who recently defected from the APC, asked the party’s appeal panel of Adhoc delegates congresses led by the former governor of Gombe State, Hassan Ibahim Dankwambo to discard the manipulated list and revert back to the true results of the ad-hoc delegates ward congresses of the party.
This is even as members of the party protested at the Secretariat of the party calling on the national leadership of the party to reverse the purported insertion of names into the delegates’ list.
Three of the aspirants who spoke on behalf of others include Banji Okunomo, Eyitayo Jegede and Eddy Olafeso alleged that the action was perpetrated to favour Agboola Ajayi.
Responding to the allegations, the chairman of the Appeal panel, Dankwambo, promised to look into their complaints passionately, adding that he would consult the party’s NWC for a final decision on the complain.
“It is the National Working Committee of the PDP in Abuja which represents the Supreme Court of the party on congresses that has the final say.
Reacting to the allegations against the defected deputy governor, his media aide Babatope Okeowo, who described it as laughable, said he has no access to the delegates list.
“Their attack on the deputy governor is misplaced; they should channel their grievances to the appropriate quarters.
“They are only jittery of the popularity of the deputy governor that’s why they are ganging up against him. He is a foundation member of the PDP and cannot be intimidated by anyone.
“The Deputy Governor has become the nightmare of his political adversaries within PDP and their allies in the All Progressives Congress, (APC) in the state because of his political capital and rising acceptance popularity.”
